Alex Guerrero believes Tom Brady can play until he's 50

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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has already defied the odds to an extent. Last year, during his age-41 season, he led the Patriots to another Super Bowl title, the sixth of his storied career. In the process, he became the oldest starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl. And it doesn't seem that the ageless wonder, or anyone in his camp, expects him to stop any time soon.

One member of Brady's camp is his trainer/spiritual guide/guru, Alex Guerrero. He has been instrumental in sparking Brady's interest in the TB12 method, and Guerrero's role with the Patriots was heavily scrutinized during the 2017 season. But, he has maintained a relationship with Brady long-term, and he recently expressed confidence in Brady's ability to play for at least a few more years.

“I know how Tom feels every day,” Guerrero said to Deadspin's Amos Barshad. “He says, ‘I don’t have any soreness. I’m ready to play again.' Those are things that we thought would happen, and now we’re seeing the reality of them happening. Do I think Tom can play to a high level at forty-five? Absolutely.”

And when asked if Brady could play until he's 50, Guerrero offered some interesting comments about the aging process and how Brady could beat it.

“I mean, why not? I’ve never put limits on myself, and I’ve never put limits on any of my clients," Guerrero told Barshad. "I’m a big believer that everything is learned behavior. You tell an athlete, ‘You’re gonna be done when you’re thirty,’ well, the brain begins to believe that, and all your neuro-programming is based on, ‘OK, I’m thirty, I’m old.’ But I don’t think the brain understands the concept of time. It doesn’t understand age. Right? How would your brain know you’re whatever age you are? I always tell Tom, we’re not gonna tell our body what we wanna do. We’re gonna tell our body what we want it to do.”

Guerrero's optimism is likely encouraging to some Patriots fans, but it's fair to question whether or not the anti-aging techniques will actually be effective. Simply expecting that thinking you can play won't always counteract actual aging. For an example of this, just take a look at what happened to Brett Favre during his final season at age 41. It wasn't pretty.

If Brady can somehow play until age 45, he would be the oldest player to ever start at the quarterback position in NFL history, surpassing Steve DeBerg (44 and 279 days old). He would have to play in each of the next four seasons to achieve that feat.

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